Equipped with a large format view camera, and inspired by the poetry of Richard Hugo, Bryan Schutmaat combines portraits, landscapes, and still lifes in a series of photos that explores the lives of working people residing in small mountain towns and mining communities in the American West.

“Grays the Mountain Sends is like hearing Merle Haggard sing white blues about dreams and grief. Though in the book we are allowed what only the best pictures can convey, a sense of light — in this case light at neglected hours on forgotten places in the American West. And light on the gray eyes of old men there, some of whom might agree with the painter Rouault who said that ‘light is tragic’. No careful viewer will forget this book. The subjects are passionately observed, the reproductions beautifully printed, and the whole rigorously edited and produced. All to help us to see and to care.”